Honourable senators, I wish to speak to this item and offer a further proposal.

Therefore, honourable senators, in amendment, I move:

That the motion be not now adopted, but that it be amended:

1.by replacing the words “the Senate invite any Minister of the Crown who is not a member of the Senate to enter the chamber during any future Question Period and” by the following:

“for the remainder of the current session, the Senate authorize the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate to make a short statement during any Question Period in order to designate Ministers of the Crown who are not members of the Senate to participate in Question Period;

That these ministers then be deemed invited to enter the chamber during Question Period at a future sitting to”;

2.by replacing the words “his or her” by the word “their”; and

3.by adding the following before the period:

“; and

That the Leader or Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate advise the Senate of the date that any minister designated by the Leader of the Opposition will be in attendance by making a brief statement during Question Period no later than the fourth day the Senate sits before that date”.

Honourable senators, we have seen over the last few years in this institution, under the guise of independence, increased transparency and reduction of politicization, a situation where, more than ever before, the will of the government is being imposed on this institution. We have also seen a situation, of course, in the spirit of reform and independence, where more than ever before the chamber has been neutered by the executive branch of government, making it more difficult for this chamber to hold the government to account.

We have seen instances where the government leaders — both past and present, who once upon a time sat in cabinet and were active participants as cabinet ministers — sat in important committees of the cabinet and were not only representatives of this institution for the government but were also able to give us timely answers to all kinds of questions. For example, under the Harper government, the government leader in the Senate was chair of the P&P cabinet committee — not only a cabinet minister — and spoke with authority in this chamber and was represented in this chamber.

Unfortunately, once again, I rise on this particular motion and the practice we have had over the last few years of the government bringing ministers of the Crown into this chamber to be held to account and to be asked questions. That’s certainly a good thing; nobody opposes that. That’s why there is just a little tweak to the amendment I’m proposing.

What is completely uncharacteristic of any Westminster system is that the Question Period agenda is driven and decided by the government. The government decides which ministers to invite and when to invite them. I think it’s completely inappropriate. I think it’s also inappropriate to have a situation where there is consultation between caucus groups when the reality of the matter is that the largest one is represented by the Liberal government itself because they are appointees of the Liberal government. I think it would be only appropriate, as I think we all understand in the spirit of independence and respecting the role of accountability of a Westminster parliamentary body, that the Leader of the Opposition identifies the minister that the opposition would like to have before the Senate during QP.

There is nothing in our amendment that changes the essence of what is being done. The only thing, of course, that is very critical and, I think, would respect the privilege of the opposition in the parliamentary setting is that, at the end of the day, there is no Westminster house, certainly not in the House of Commons, where the government determines what minister answers what questions. It’s the opposition that determines what questions are asked to what ministers. If we’re going to continue to conduct this practice at QP of bringing in ministers, it would be appropriate that the leader of the official opposition party identifies the minister, with due notice, of course, giving all ministers ample opportunity to arrange their agenda and their time to come before this committee to answer questions. Thank you, colleagues.